Last Thursday was when the GB Team met at the airport to fly out to Munich from Stansted, ready for the first European of the season in Langenfeld. On the long journey after stopping for a meal in Imst, Austria I found out that I’d been selected for the World Youth Championships which is being held in Arco, Italy. This made me even more psyched to compete in the competition.

After arriving at the accommodation in Huben it turned out we would have small apartments to stay in with kitchens to cook meals. The next day we woke up fairly early for a filling breakfast. Then the Team was ready to go out and buy our healthy food from a supermarket.

 After registering and eating we went back to the hotel for an early night as Group B boys and girls and Group A’s girls were competing the next day. A 6 o’clock start is seldom for me but I managed it and was well psyched after listening to some Calvin Harris tracks! I was ready to compete.

Arriving at the venue shortly after 7:30 Girls B started getting warmed up. Then after their 90 minute qualifying was over it was my turn soon. In the warm up with Tim I decided I would open up my hips so I’d be more flexible on the wall. This definitely paid off as in my qualifying blocs I had to get a few high heels! When my qualies began I was really psyched and, doing what Alex Waterhouse would have done, I went straight for the slab! I was the first to top it and moved on quickly. Soon after topping the slab I had 2 more in the bag. The next one I chose to do was a small dyno on the barrel, the dyno wasn’t too hard, just needed commitment and I also flashed it. 4 tops in 5 goes so far. I moved  on  topping 2 more climbs in 5 goes, one which I had 3 goes on I should have flashed really. The clock reached 0 and time was up. The results soon came and I was really pleased to have come 11^th with 6t10 (6 tops in 10 goes).Top 8 made the final and the guy that came 8^th had 6t8 so I was 2 attempts of making my first final. A good positive start to the season.

Billy Ridal from the Unit was also there competing; it was his first euro boulder comp and his first year in the Team and he absolutely crushed it qualifying for the final in joint 7^th place. Awesome effort Billy for finishing 6^th place overall.

The whole team climbed well and we all had a great time, thanks to Tim, Lu and Mike for making the trip awesome!